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Did Jimi Hendrix really say, "'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy?"

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We think the video above makes it pretty clear that Hendrix liked to mess around with the lyrics, and on occasion actually did say "'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy." Which means this site may not be named after one of the most commonly misheard lyrics after all. Additional stories from readers below support that.

This remembrance of a legendary Hendrix performance comes to us from reader Carl A. Zaner and we thought it was pretty illuminating, so check it out!

I've just discovered your site...very interesting!!

However, I must point out to you that the foundation for, and name of your site and e-mail address, is not wrong. Let me explain.

In late 1967 (!) I saw Jimi Hendrix perform for six concerts (two on Saturday night) over five nights in-a-row, at Washington, D.C.'s "Ambassador Theater", in the Adams-Morgan section of the city. The theater was just that -- a movie theater which had been gutted of seats, with the stage remaining, leading up to a huge screen onto which oil-pan psychedelics were projected live from the projection room, above and behind the performers' heads. Concerts were scheduled six nights a week and the admission price for each concert was ONE DOLLAR (!!!).

At the time, the "Are You Experienced?" LP had just been released. Hendrix had a loyal following in the U.K. and a growing group of fans on the West Coast of the U.S., but was basically unheard-of on the East Coast. The concert opened with a house band (at the time, the Mosaic Virus -- basically a Jefferson Airplane clone) which played for about an hour; then the "headline" act.

Then Hendrix walked onto the stage, with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. He wore an outfit similar to (if not the same) as the orange ruffle-collared, psychedelic-eyed outfit, as appears on the cover of the "Are You Experienced?" album cover! What a sight!

Most of the people there had never even heard his music before coming to the concert! The word had gotten around the freak community that you HAD to go see this guy who could really play guitar! He plugged in his guitar and the Experience began to play "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -- Reprise" (from the second side of the Beatles album of the same name...the fast-paced version which begins with the rapid count-off...1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). The general crowd reaction was almost one of disinterest..."Ho hum, another Beatles imitator!"

Little did the crowd know that Hendrix traveled with a studio mixing engineer, who was seated just below stage level, in what would have been the "orchestra pit" of a traditional theater. After finishing his bombastic version of "Sgt. Pepper", Jimi launched into a full-fledged performance of almost the ENTIRE "Experienced?" album, beginning with an ultra-sonic "Purple Haze". The crowd was completely mesmerized, to say the least!

Now, to the point. While performing "Purple Haze", for six performances in a row, Hendrix, standing to the left of the stage, clearly pointed directly at Noel Redding standing to the right, and they both laughed and made a "thing" out of it, each time the phrase came up, "...scuse me while I kiss this guy." This was not a mistake or a "misheard lyric". The two of them were clearly "goofing" on and with the crowd and having a great time! Hendrix even walked over to Redding during one or two of these performances, and mimed kissing him!

I also saw Hendrix perform this song twice in 1968, at the "Washington Hilton", in D.C., and the same on-stage gestures and pointing occured. Since seeing these performances live, going back and carefully listening to the original recording, I've always believed that he intentionally slurred his diction on the studio take, to achieve the same effect -- just to "goof" on the audience.

Feel free to include this personal account in your site, if you wish, but you definitely have to rethink this one lyric as being "misheard".

Webmaster's note: So this whole thing falls into a sort of grey area between misheard and not. On the one hand, the actual lyric is "Kiss the Sky." On the other hand, Hendrix himself was hip to the fun that could be had by allowing the meanings buried in the mishearance to surface playfully. He knew that many people were mishearing it this way, so he just started singing it that way. Still makes for a good domain name tho...

Reader LJ Connaughton writes:

There is a precedent!

The classic blues tune by Elmore James entitled "the sky is crying" features a turn around in the last lyrical passage and the title phrase becomes "this guy is crying".

Jimi Hendrix was an absolute expert of the blues and HAD to be intimately familiar with this and all the other works of Elmore James.

I respectfully suggest that the lyrics were deliberate and the performance planned.

Peace. Be at it.

Nick reminisces:

After receiving a stereo for Christmas in 1967, I bought Are You Experienced as one of the first five records I owned (other four: first Doors, Surrealistic Pillow, Disraeli Gears, Sgt. Pepper---that's when music was music). I played the grooves off all five records, and was particularly mesmerized by the words to Purple Haze, so much so that I pulled down the paper window shade on my bedroom window and wrote the lyrics as I understood them on it in purple crayon. What I wrote for the lyric for which you name your website was not Kiss this guy, or even Kiss the sky, but rather: 'Scuse me, What about this disguise?
I listened to that same old beat-up record again just now, and I stand by my misheard lyric.

On a related note, a fairly typical note on how users perceive the pun of this domain name.

I have always wondered, 'Why is this site named
KissThisGuy.com? What a lame name!' But I had to
admit, it's easy to remember.

Ya know, it never even occurred to me that the site was
actually NAMED after one of its own misheard lyrics!
Crazy, I know. I just didn't think of it! I thought
it was simply chosen because it was easy to remember.

So last week I was telling my coworker about this cute
site, and I told her to type in the address of
"KissThisGuy.com."

She asked for confirmation, "KissThisGuy.com?"

"Yeah," I said, "It's lame, I know. I have no idea
what it means. K - I - S - S - T - H..."

"Ohhh," she said as she typed, "Ok." And she continued
typing as I spelled out for her the entire domain name!

We read a few items in your site and shared a laugh.
After we were done, she said, "Yeah, that's why when
you said, 'KissThisGuy.com' I thought you said,
'KissThisGuy.com!'"

"Huh?!" I asked. "That IS what I said!"

"No," she explained again, "I thought you said,
'KissThisGuy.com!'"

"Yeah," I resumed, "that is..."

It was at that moment that I experienced the revelation
-- the same revelation that every one of your
submitters have once experienced. Only mine wasn't
over the lyrics of a song (directly); mine was over the
name of your site.

It slowly dawned on me that what I had been saying to
her sounded like 'KissTheSky.com!' THAT's what she
heard me say, she had immediately thought of the
Hendrix song, and that's what she had begun to enter
into the browser's address bar.

I had never "heard" your site's name. I had only read
it on screen. I had never even "heard" it in my mind.
Only SEEN it. But my coworker had only heard me say it.

And THEN, finally, I understood the domain name!
Revelation complete!

Then, of course, we both shared a chuckle over our
mutual confusion and the cleverly named site!